Stand up for the Moke at the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors

Call to action!!

Tues, July 29
6 pm, Board Chambers, San Andreas

Calaveras County residents, visitors, businesses and neighbors: Please attend the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors evening meeting on Tuesday, July 29 at 6 pm. The agenda will include a discussion of Wild and Scenic River designation for the Mokelumne and state Senate Bill 1199, which would establish that protection in state law for good.

The bill’s opponents are pushing hard on the supervisors to change their earlier support position for Wild and Scenic and state legislation. Please come and urge them to stand strong.

This is a critical meeting. The board needs to hear how much you care about the Mokelumne and how important it is to you, you family, your business and your community.

If you can’t attend, please e-mail the board clerk and ask her to share your e-mail with all of the members of the board. And call your own supervisor to tell him or her to stand up for the Mokelumne River! See their contact information here.

SB 1199 and Wild and Scenic designation will:
** Protect 37 miles of the North Fork and Main Mokelumne from new dams and diversions from Salt Springs Dam to Pardee Reservoir
** Ensure that Calaveras County residents have this beautiful river in their future to use and enjoy for generations to come
** Stop dams that threaten riverside landowners with eminent domain
** Prevent any future upstream expansion of Pardee Reservoir and the construction of dams at Middle Bar and Devil’s Nose
** Provide a new marketing tool for Calaveras businesses, branding the county as a national destination
** Maintain and build on the economic benefits the river provides for local businesses and local government. River visitors spend significant amounts on food, lodging, gasoline and other goods and services.
** Protect the river’s important cultural, historical, scenic, water quality and recreational values
In February, the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 to support Wild and Scenic designation for the river and asked that a bill be introduced to protect the river. That bill, SB 1199, has passed the state senate and is now in the assembly. Maintaining local support for the river is key to its passage, which is why opponents — including  anti-environmental extremists on the Amador County Board of Supervisors and their Tea Party allies — are putting so much pressure on the Calaveras supervisors to back off their earlier position.
They don’t want to protect the Moke. They just want to kill the bill.
The water agencies that oppose the bill and Amador County are asking for amendments that would allow them to build new dams and diversions on the Mokelumne! Their amendments would also gut key provisions of Wild and Scenic protection by excluding their future water rights application from river protections provided in state law.
After Wild and Scenic designation, local water agencies can still apply for new water rights and the State Water Resources Control Board has an established process for reviewing those applications. No one has come up with a single example where the state board has denied or modified a water rights application upstream of or on a tributary of a state Wild and Scenic River!
Wild & Scenic protection for the Mokelumne River will allow reasonable upstream water development to meet future local water needs as long as the projects don’t harm the river. The state water board has permitted reasonable water development upstream and even on other state protected rivers. Why are local water agencies demanding that the Mokelumne get a lower level of protection than other Wild and Scenic rivers? Isn’t the Moke every bit as important as the lower American River, South Yuba, East Carson and other protected rivers?

If SB 1199 does not move forward in the Legislature, Wild and Scenic opponents will declare victory and return to business as usual. The best way to find solutions for water and the Mokelumne is to keep the bill moving forwards.
We can protect the river and provide water for Calaveras County’s future. It just has to be done in a smart, creative way, not by using 19th century technology to solve 21st century problems. SB 1199 will establish a clear environmental baseline for all future water planning on the Mokelumne, leading to better, more feasible, less costly solutions for future water supply while we keep and enjoy the river we love.
Please come to the board meeting at 6 pm on Tuesday, July 29, share your concerns, and urge the board of supervisors to keep standing strong for the Mokelumne River.

It’s time to Save the Moke for Good!

Don’t forget our special Save the Moke raft trip August 10  on the American River!
It’s the perfect way to cool off on a hot summer day and protect the Moke at the same time. You can raft the American with O.A.R.S. all day at a great price with proceeds benfiting our Mokelumne conservation programs!
Click on this link for more information.